§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of married women in employment have been taxed separately from their husbands in each of the past three years.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI regret that information is not available in precisely the form requested but the figures below show for each year the estimated percentage of married couples, whose income includes wife's earned income, who would benefit from an election to have the wife's earned income taxed separately.
per cent. 1974–75 … … … … 2 1975–76 … … … … 3 1976–77 … … … … 3 The figures for 1975–76 and 1976–77 are provisional. The 1974–75 figure is derived from the Inland Revenue's Survey of Personal Incomes and is subject to the limitations of that survey in its coverage of small incomes (see page 35 of Inland Revenue Statistics 1976).